Guitar centre moves well right of centre.

Unskilled laborers don't get much recourse. If a company can hire and train a new employee in a month, then that employee doesn't have much bargaining power. They are easily replaceable.

If you want to say No to an imposed position, you've got to be bringing something to the table that the company wants. I don't see that at Guitar Center.
 
Not looking to turn this into a political discussion..., but unionizing the unskilled GC laborers is probably worse than them signing the agreements as it would guarantee they would remain longer at GC and always arguing for skilled labor pay.

This way...it forces them not to settle for GC jobs...and maybe they'll smarten up and get some skills and better jobs.
I think it's best for GC to always maintain a renewable unskilled labor force. It goes with their GC image.

:D
 
What's wrong with this picture. Say I have $3500 burning a hole in my pocket and a idea on buying a new guitar. If banjo mart thinks I'd deal with some kid who couldn't get a job a McDonalds because of his facial piercings with that kind of money at stake, they're crazy.
 
Track Rat said:
What's wrong with this picture. Say I have $3500 burning a hole in my pocket and a idea on buying a new guitar. If banjo mart thinks I'd deal with some kid who couldn't get a job a McDonalds because of his facial piercings with that kind of money at stake, they're crazy.
Click to expand...

Well, you know every GC has their one washed-up has-been to add credence to the store's rep. He'll be the one to sell that $3000 guitar to you. :D
 
What Guitar Center is doing shouldn't be legal. Collective bargaining is necessary in order to balance the employer/employee relationship.
 
I went into the Nashua (New Hampshire) GC this afternoon, first time I've been in there since November. Place looks like they are getting ready to move. Lots of empty space, filled up by 'displays' of boxed low end gear. Although the online site showed they had a shitload of used guitar amps, in fact there were maybe 20 total. Website claimed a big 'clearance sale' going on, no evidence at the store.
 
I've been using Guitar Center for about 20 years. Let's just say I've spent a lot of money there. From memory, I have four guitars, a bass, three guitar amps, a 4x10 bass cab, my Pro VLAII compressor, and God knows how many pedals, cables and whatnot. And I'm probably forgetting things.

Despite what many say, I've found it a decent place to shop. I'm not bothered that most of the sales staff are kids. They're personable, and I can do my own research. But it's gotten depressing to go in there anymore. The inventory has disappeared. In the bass room where I tend to head first, there used to be a range of higher end Fenders, Music Man, Gibsons, a good selection of Gallien-Krueger amps and cabs, an SVT or two, and usually some decent used stuff. Now there might be one or two American Fenders, a couple of Mexican Fenders, and the rest Squiers and lower-end Ibanez, a couple of Markbass amps, a few of the Chinese pseudo-Portaflex heads, and a lot of empty space on the walls.

On top of that, forcing employees to sign away their rights in court as a condition of employment? Not cool. I may be done with GC.
 
Every employee I've met at any GC from all over the country hasn't known a single thing I didn't already know, if not less. I've made the mistake of walking into their "pro audio" sections and trying to have a basic conversation with the employees there. While they gave me the why-this-product-is-exactly!-what-I-need speech I pretty much had to explain the common knowledge of the section they were put in charge of! Get the fuck outta my face with the sales schemes and get some workers with half a brain on what they're selling. Dipshit Rick over here doesn't know what a VST is while he's pitching me the closest box with a pretty picture on it.

lame ass contracts
lame ass employees
lame ass in-store selection

I do like to go into the acoustic rooms and take a deep breath though. That glue gets me feeling good before I have to meet another associate :facepalm:
 
The company that bought a few years back made us sign a limitation of 6 months severance pay, regardless of length of employment - or be terminated (with ?? severance lol).

The norm is 1 month for every year around these parts (We are white collar, non-union).

We all bitched for a few minutes, then we all signed it. We all have bills to pay.
 
It's an abuse of power to do such things to any employee.
Most employees cave in because they need the job.
It's an employer's market when the workforce isn't majority unionized.
Collective bargaining - real collective bargaining & not the shonky employer placed representative agreeing with the boss in an enterprise agreement subversion - is the only thing that has, traditionally, helped a worker.
I don't know about your countries but unions certainly brought about the 8hr day, 4 weeks paid compulsory annual leave, a living wage, survivable working conditions, and safety for the public in Australia.
Employers, and the govt., are currently trying to wind those things back WHILST making record profits, paying dividends all over (Australia is dividend heaven) and making record payments to board members + CEOs etc.
 
guitar center is just doing what most other companies have done or are going to do. As far as unfair termination goes, the labor board protects against that and will allow a vitim of it to draw unemployment compensation. To expect more then that as an unskilled worker is crazy IMO.
Guitar center sales staff get a bad rap for not being knowledgeable but I think they do OK. They can guide someone, who knows nothing about guitars, in buying a first guitar for their kid.
If I'm going in there to spend $3500 on a guitar...I know exactly what I want and what a good price is. The only thing I need a sales clerk for is to get it down off the wall.
 
It's always an employers market when the employees don't need any skills that you couldn't teach the average 14 year old in a week.

By not expecting the floor staff to actually know anything, the company has created the situation whereby they can replace anyone inside of 3 hours. Also, since they employ people who couldn't get a job in an office, due to excessive peircings, facial tatoos, and interesting hair styles, the employees simply need to deal with what they are given.

I never worked at gc, but went through the same thing back in the 80's, when I had the big, long hair.

I took a job for less money than everyone else was making, simply because I had made myself unemployable and was desperate to pay my bills. That's the way it works.
 
rayc said:
It's an abuse of power to do such things to any employee.
Most employees cave in because they need the job.
It's an employer's market when the workforce isn't majority unionized.
Collective bargaining - real collective bargaining & not the shonky employer placed representative agreeing with the boss in an enterprise agreement subversion - is the only thing that has, traditionally, helped a worker.
I don't know about your countries but unions certainly brought about the 8hr day, 4 weeks paid compulsory annual leave, a living wage, survivable working conditions, and safety for the public in Australia.
Employers, and the govt., are currently trying to wind those things back WHILST making record profits, paying dividends all over (Australia is dividend heaven) and making record payments to board members + CEOs etc.
Click to expand...

Let's be careful where the conversation goes. In the US, talk of union vs non-union is a hot topic. Dissing on GC is quite acceptable. (Did I just date myself by using the word 'dissing'?)
 
Union VS non-union is a hot topic everywhere Chili.
I've seen a very laissez-faire attitude to the plight of those with little alternative in this conversation but won't pursue it because this isn't a political thread other than to say that as someone who was a union member whilst in pre work training, has been a site union rep since 1981, president of 2 regional union associations (life member of one), a member of my union's state council for 15 years and on the state executive for a year I have seen how hard unions work for employees and how hard some, definitely not all, employers work to pay as little as possible, (while paying as little tax as possible and receiving corporate welfare) to have people work in conditions as dangerous as can be gotten away with. I wish you gentlemen well and hope that you cherish those conditions that you have that were fought for by others in the past. Be nice to one another and to those who are less fortunate.
 
Oh, another thing missing in Nashua - they used to have a computer recording rig desk set up where they would give 'how to' lessons with PT once a month. Completely gone, empty space and blank wall now.
 
All of those arguments for a union make sense when talking about mine workers or something like that. But low end retail workers?

At some point, it is up to the individual to learn a skill that will make it possible to find employment that can pay enough for them to live their life.

If I'm not mistaken, GC is owned by the same company that owns Best Buy, who has turned it into the musical instrument equivelent. It's a retail job, with hundreds of equally qualified people lining up to work there. That's what gives the company the power to do whatever they want.
 
The problem with what GC is doing here isn't that they're trying to prevent unionization; they're forcing employees to waive rights they already have.
"promise not to join a union, or we'll fire you" is pretty different from "sign this thing saying that if you ever come into a legal conflict with us, you'll accept a judgement made by some guy we hired to decide what is 'fair' compensation if we cheat our employees. (or we'll fire you)"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top